Improvement in bil liard-cues



l FITZGERALD.

Billiard-Cue.

No. 219,241. Patented Sept. 2,1879

s; :a Q Q UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ANTHONY FITZGERALD, OF STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HUGH W. OOLLENDER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN BIL LIARD-CUES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 219,241, dated September 2, 1879; application filed May 24, 1879.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANTHONY FITZGERALD, of Stamford, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut,liave invented certain new and useful Improvements in Billiard- Cues; and I do hereby-declare that the following is afull and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification.

. two woods so long and so diagonal to the grain of the woods as to insure perfection and durability in the joints.

It will be understood that billiard-cues have to be made of certain light-colored woods which possess the proper degree of density and strength, and at the same time are not liable to warp or spring out of shape, and that they must have their butt-ends gradually enlarged to give the proper size for the gripe of the hand, and at the same time the proper weight to get a good balance to the cue. At the same time the weights of the cues must vary to suit the tastes and requirements of different players, (some requiring a heavier cue than others,) while at the same time the tip end of a one has sometimes to be largest when the aggregate weight is required to be least. Therefore most of the difference in aggregate weight has often to be made by the sizing and shaping of the larger or butt portion of the stick. 7

I have found by experience that in making fancy cues in the usual manner it is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to get the butts, when composed of any of the darker woods, (tocontrast with the lighter part of the stick and produce a fancy cue,) light enough; and,

I as a consequence, it is often necessary to bore out the extreme butt portion to lighten it up. This is very objectionable, because any one is more desirable when the material composing it (no matter how heavy or light, or whether of one piece or several glued together) forms a solid mass from end to end, for there is then less liability of unpleasant vibration and noise in making the stroke, and more stability and durability to the stick. Besides these objections to the present mode of making fancy cues, there is always more or less liability of the joints becoming imperfect at some point,

and this, when it occurs, renders the cue liawhich shall be made of one piece of light Wood, and will therefore possess many practical advantages over the fancy cues heretofore manufactured; and to this end and. object my invention consists ina billiard-cue made after the fashion of the ordinary plain one, but having its butt colored and finished to perfectly represent the usual fancy cue composed of several pieces of wood of different colors, as will be hereinafter more fully explained.

To enable those skilled in the art to make' and use my invention, I will now describe it more particularly by reference to the accom panying drawings, in which I have illustrated in side View or elevation, in three different positions- In Figures 1, 2, and 3, a fancy one made according to my new mode of manufacture, Fig. 4 being a cross-section at w a: of Fig. 3, the in dentations being exaggerated to more fully illustrate them.

In each figure the white portion (marked A) represents that portion of a fancy one which is usually made of the light wood, and the dark part (marked B) that portion usually made of darker and heavier wood, the two woods being spliced by a complex long splicejoint to give the usual external appearance illustrated, and to produce the effects I have hereinbefore already explained as to perfection and strength of the joints; but in the cues illustrated the dark and light portions B and A are all in one solid piece, the stick from end to end being a homogeneous mass. To produce this effect I make the stick in the mannerof making a plain stick. I then color the portions that are to represent the darker butt portion, as illustrated at B, to represent any one of the woods it is desired to imitate, and then finish and polish the surface to present precisely the appearance of the compound fancy cues or sticks heretofore made. Besides avoiding in the manufacture thus of fancy cues the objections to which I have hereinbefore alluded, I produce an article that, while better than the fancy cue heretofore made, can be manufactured and sold cheaper than those heretofore used.

In order to produce the desired result with so little cost as to render the manufacture as cheap as or cheaper than that heretofore practiced, I have had to devise novel means or methods of coloring those parts of the stick which have to be made to imitate the darker woods in the peculiar designs produced when the cues were made in the previously-practiced way, and these means I have made the subject of another separate application for Letters Patent filed simultaneously with this case.

To color the portion 13 of the light-wood stick, I apply at the proper place and surrounding part of the white portion A a clamp,

which has long-pointed fingers correspondingto the white-pointed surfaces in the drawings, that fit so tightly and perfectly against or into the surface of the stick that by the application of the desired color to the stick with a sponge or brush (preferably the former) at B, this portion of the surface of the stick will be stained, and can be colored so that the color will extend clear up into the crotches between the fingers of the clamp and produce the required design perfectly. The clamping-fingers are made with sharp edges where they press against the surface of thecue, so as to prevent the color from running under the clamp, and the latter being left on until the color is dry, the coloring of the cue after removal of the clamp is found to be done with a sharpness of the lines and angles formed by the contrasting colors of the cue which presents exactly the appearance of the joints in fancy ones made in the old way, and the indentations in the wood produce tothe sense of touch the same conditions as found in a one made from several pieces. Of course, the same result might be produced without the use of any such clamps by the exercise of a greater amount of more skilled labor; but by the mode suggested, and which will be found more fully described in my other application, I am enabled to produce the improved fancy cues made the subject of this application at even less cost than the fancy cues heretofore made.

WVhat I claim as a new or improved article of manufacture is An imitation fancy billiard-cuethat is, a cue made of one piece of wood, but colored and finished to present the appearance of a cue composed of several pieces of different-colored woods jointed together, (as in'the' manufacture of real fancy cues,) which not only has this appearance, but has its surface cut or. indented so as to present to the touch the conditions of the'act ual joints ofthereal fancy one, as setforth. 1

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this 21st day of May, 1879.

ANTHONY FITZGERALD. [L; s.]

In presence of 7 CHARLES E. HOLLY, JAMES R. WARREN. 

